Metro Atlanta area police working to understand increases in wrong-way crashes

ATLANTA — Police in the metro Atlanta area investigated two wrong-way crashes in the last few days, one of those crashes killed a woman.

Channel 2′s Michael Seiden spoke to Atlanta police, who are working to determine what caused the crash that killed a 24-year-old woman and injured another driver.

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The crash happened along Lenox Road just a few feet away from GA-400, with police saying the wrong-way crash caused the road to be shut down.

Investigators said Morgan Glover died in the crash, and an as-yet unidentified 52-year-old man was injured around 5 a.m. on Sunday in the northbound lanes near Lenox Road.

The crash involved two SUVs, with one traveling south when it hit the other. Police haven’t said which driver was responsible yet.

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The same day, around 6 a.m. in Douglas County, another wrong-way crash happened on Interstate 20 near Lee Road.

Investigators told Channel 2 Action News that a DUI suspect was driving east in the westbound lanes when he crashed into two other cars, but no one was injured.

Over the years, wrong-way crashes have been on the rise. In 2023, 31-year-old Ashleigh Mouring shared her survival story with Channel 2′s Sophia Choi.

“The only thing that I had time to think of is ‘I’m going to die, I’m going to die,’” Mouring said.

The Georiga Department of Transportation’s data on wrong-way crashes shows an increase in the number that have been fatal, jumping from 16 in 2013 to 44 in 2022.

Channel 2 Action News plotted the number of wrong-way crashes with the most recent data from GDOT, showing that the number of wrong-way crashes, fatal or otherwise, reached a high of 852 in 2022.

GDOT officials said it’s mainly from bad driver behavior, with the data showing multiple reasons for the crashes, such s speeding, distracted driving, the physical condition of the driver including age, and disregarding or evading police.

The biggest factor, though, was driving under the influence, according to GDOt, where 13.5% of incidents involved DUI.

Impairment can include alcohol, street and prescription drugs and even lack of sleep.

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